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For 43-year-old Fatima, navigating the streets of Bustan Al Qaser in Aleppo had become part of her daily struggle. Over the years, the neighborhood’s aging and damaged sewage network deteriorated, leaving sewage water overflowing into the streets and creating serious challenges for families.
“The smell is everywhere,” Fatima says. “You cannot walk through the streets without seeing sewage water. It mixes with the garbage and attracts insects, mosquitoes, and rodents. We worry about our children all the time.”
Years of deterioration, compounded by damage caused by the February 2023 earthquake, left parts of the sewage network in critical condition. Blackwater flooded the streets and, in some cases, entered the basements of residential buildings. Stagnant wastewater attracted flies, mosquitoes and rodents, increasing health risks and making an already difficult living environment even harder for families.
For Fatima, the situation was particularly worrying because one of the damaged sewage lines was located directly in front of her children’s school.
“I am always afraid that my children will play in the sewage water like other children do,” she explains. “I keep telling them to stay away because I don’t know what diseases it could cause.”
The problem also affected access to essential community services. Fatima regularly attended activities at a Women and Girls Safe Space (WGSS) center in Bustan Al Qaser, but reaching the center often meant walking through flooded and contaminated streets.
“Even when I go to attend sessions, my shoes and clothes get dirty from the sewage water,” she says. “Something as simple as walking to school or attending activities becomes difficult.”
To address these challenges, Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), with funding from the Syria Humanitarian Fund (SHF), is rehabilitating critical sections of Bustan Al Qaser’s sewage network, improving sanitation conditions for approximately 10,100 people.
The intervention includes replacing deteriorated sewage lines, restoring blocked sections, installing household connections, constructing manholes and improving stormwater drainage. Where existing lines could be restored through specialized cleaning and jetting, NCA avoided unnecessary replacement and redirected resources toward streets where rehabilitation was most urgently needed.
For families, the change is about more than infrastructure. It means fewer sewage overflows, cleaner streets, reduced exposure to contaminated water, and safer routes to schools, homes and community services. It means reducing the conditions that attract insects and rodents and helping protect families from the health risks associated with untreated wastewater.
For Fatima and her neighbors, it also brings something they had not felt for years: hope.
“For years, we have lived with this problem and felt that nobody could solve it,” Fatima says. “When we heard that the sewage system would be repaired, we felt hopeful. We want our children to walk safely to school and for our neighborhood to be clean again.”
The rehabilitation of Bustan Al Qaser’s sewage network demonstrates how restoring essential infrastructure can help restore health, safety and dignity.
With the support of SHF and collaboration with local authorities and community members, NCA is helping Bustan Al Qaser move toward a healthier and safer future, one street, one household and one family at a time.
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